Kindred Spirits
by lunaerum
Summary: Tsuna is six when he makes his first friend: a dragon named Haku, who is very clearly not real. Tsuna is thirteen when he realizes that just might not be true. AU. Haku/Tsuna. All27. Dedicated to ohosun over on tumblr!


**Disclaimer** : Don't own anything but the fic idea/writing.

 **Summary** : Tsuna is six when he makes his first friend: a dragon named Haku, who is very clearly not real. Tsuna is thirteen when he realizes that just might not be true. AU. Haku/Tsuna. All27. Dedicated to ohosun over on tumblr!

 **Warning(s)** : N/A.

 **Enticements** … Canon divergent KHR AU! More backstory for Nana! Tsuna having grandparents! Tsundere Haku!

 **Pairings** : Haku/Tsuna, All27, Iemitsu/Nana, and Kyoko/Hana.

 **Dedication** : Okay so, this is dedicated to my friend Elliott over on tumblr! A few years ago we came up with this pairing and I decided to actually write a fic and dedicate it to them! Hope you like it, Elliott!

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 **Prologue** : _An Imaginary Friend Named Haku_

Please be sure to review if you liked the story!

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When Tsuna is six years old, a kind-looking elderly man arrives with his father to visit him and his mother.

Years later, the memory of the visit is so fuzzy he can barely remember all that happened during those few days his father and the old man were there – only something about a ball … talking with his father and mother … a gentle touch to his forehead …

And a terrible emptiness that left him dazed, confused, and clumsy. An emptiness that made the days run together, that persisted like an impossible itch just beneath his skin. Tsuna remembers in the days after that visit that he'd gotten lost to and from school, that he'd stumbled around Namimori as the empty feeling inside just got worse and worse with every passing day.

Eventually, it gets better, if only a little bit, when Tsuna creates a splendid world of bright vivid colors and creatures that must've been inspired by the anime he watches. There, in that imaginary world, he makes his first friend, a boy named Haku who is older than Tsuna (which means he's also infinitely cooler), with green hair and blue eyes.

He's also a dragon.

(If Tsuna is going to create an imaginary best friend, it's going to be a dragon, because what six year old _wouldn't_ want a dragon as their best friend?)

Tsuna doesn't remember the exact day that he created Haku, but he remembers that early on, their friendship was somehow fraught with some sort of tension that made Haku snappish, which in turn made Tsuna cry.

Tsuna remembers crying a lot at six. And it was terrible – not only because it caused the bullying to get worse, but because it leaves him so exhausted and makes the emptiness even worse. Haku made that a little bit better, just by being with him. At six, he didn't understand why his mother wasn't able to see him or why she perked up when he told her more about his friend, but as he gets older he realizes that she wasn't able to see him because wasn't _real_ and she was probably just happy that he wasn't as miserable as he was before.

As six turns into seven, Tsuna grows closer to Haku. He no longer visits that imaginary world he'd created to escape his crushing loneliness, instead, Haku is with him all the time, from the time he wakes, to the time he sleeps. Everything is a little bit better with Haku by his side.

Seven turns to eight and Haku continues to be his constant companion. Tsuna learns to read Haku and learns that his friend doesn't mean what he says. The emptiness gets better and worse, but as long as Haku is by his side, he can do anything.

Then …

Sometime as Tsuna turns nine, he gets sick. _Really_ sick. The emptiness inside of his chest turns into terrible, awful cold that has him shivering, even under the mound of blankets his mother places on his bed and tucks him underneath. Between the third and fifth day of Tsuna being sick, Tsuna realizes that Haku isn't around anymore, which just makes everything worse.

Tsuna is ill for almost a week and a half before he gets better, and during that time, his mother diligently nurses him back to health. When she's exhausted herself, his grandparents – his mother's parents – are there to help. He spends the weeks after he's sick waiting for Haku to come back so they can play, but he never, ever does.

(Which is just like Tsuna, to create an imaginary friend who would eventually abandon him, just like everyone else did.)

When Tsuna is ten, he resigns himself to the fact that Haku is never coming back. At eleven, that Haku was never real in the first place.

Twelve is when the bullying at school gets bad and the moniker 'Dame-Tsuna' is created to ridicule him.

Thirteen is the age when Tsuna hates himself for even creating Haku in the first place – it would have been much better to have never known friendship than to have had it and lose it. Thirteen is the age where Tsuna realizes that the bullies are right: he really doesn't have a future in anything but being a loser.

Thirteen is also the age where Tsuna realizes that all of the things he knew about his life?

Yeah.

They're all very, very wrong.

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Next chapter will be Tsuna's Dying Will flame being activated … and what happens after.

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I'm lunaerum over on tumblr and twitter. Give me a follow if you like!

R&R please! Feedback on this concept/chapter would be great. Thank you!


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